Tyler Smallwood
Tyler Smallwood is a werewolf from Fell's Church, Virginia. He has black hair and dark brown eyes. Early Life Tyler grew up a spoiled child, due to his father having a high status in Fell's Church, as they were descended from one of the town's founders, Jacob Smallwood. He often remarks that the Smallwoods were the real founders of the town instead of the Fells, and is also very prone to anger. The Awakening On the night of Homecoming in their senior year in 1991, Elena decides to leave with Tyler out of frustration towards Stefan, and Tyler decides to hang out at the cemetery. He also brings along Dick Carter and Vickie Bennett. Eventually, he brings Elena to Jacob's grave at the bottom of the hill and tries to rape her, but Stefan shows up and saves her. The Struggle Determined to prove to the town that Stefan is the reason for the recent events, as Elena's diary reveals her suspicions about him, Caroline begins talking with Tyler due to his family's influence and gets closer to him. They plan for Caroline to read Elena's diary aloud during Founder's Day. When the time comes, however, Caroline finds that Elena's diary has been switched with her own. Later that day, Stefan goes into the Quosnet Hut to feed on humans for the first time in centuries in order to face off with Damon to the death. He drinks Tyler and two other boys to the point of unconciousness and is about to feed on Caroline when she screams, and he just decides to Influence her to forget the event. The Fury Tyler's father knows that Stefan is behind the attack, probably because Tyler shared the information, and makes him undergo hypnosis with Alaric to try to get him to remember it. Dark Reunion Six months after the first three books, on June 6, 1992, Meredith has a surprise birthday party at Caroline's house with Caroline, Bonnie, Vickie and Sue Carson. Caroline has gone back to being an ally, although she has formed a relationship with Tyler over the past six months. Klaus, one of the Old Ones (the first vampires to walk the earth thousands of years ago who have never been human), comes to town and tells Tyler of the werewolf gene hidden inside him and of all the power it can give him. He convinces Tyler to let him help turn him into a werewolf so they can cause chaos together, and Tyler breaks into Caroline's house that night to let Klaus in as the others are using a ouija board to try and contact Elena. Elena tells them that "he" is in the house and Klaus lures Sue upstairs, letting Tyler push her out of the window, killing her and completing the transition. Klaus then makes an incision on her chest and then lets Tyler drink her blood. The Salvatores find this out by investigating her body and the Smallwood family in the library, revealing that Jacob had been bitten by a werewolf and turned, leaving the gene dormant in his descending bloodline until they committed murder. To confront Tyler, Bonnie and Meredith stage a fake fight during graduation about respecting Elena, making it loud enough for everyone to hear. It ends with Meredith saying that she will visit Elena's grave that night. She does so, and Tyler shows up to rape her as expected, but the others stop her and force him to reveal that Klaus had come to town and had been helping him. Towards the end of the book, Stefan receives Caroline's scarf in the mail and a note telling him to come face Klaus alone. He does, but Bonnie, Meredith and Matt sneak along, anyway. Meredith rescues Caroline, who is tied up and then goes to help Bonnie and Matt face off against Tyler, who has transformed into a brown half-wolf, half-human. Tyler claws Meredith's leg down to the bone, but Bonnie pushes a large branch onto the side of his head and he runs off. He is never seen nor heard from again. One of the plotlines of The Return is that Caroline has gotten pregnant with twins and is turning into a werewolf because of it. Considering that she was kidnapped and that Tyler wasn't exactly boyfriend material as a werewolf, she was most likely raped by him during this book, although it is never stated. Damon remarks that a human that becomes pregnant from a werewolf will eventually have the ability to shift back and forth between a wolf and a human at will. In Midnight, when Caroline is testifying against Matt for raping her during his trial (due to the influence of the malach inside her), Talon comes in and howls, causing not just Caroline, but many other werewolves in the room to transform. Tyler's father most likely turned himself and then his friends in Ridgemont's legal system. The Hunters: Phantom Tyler does not appear in this book, but his cousin, Caleb, does. Caleb has come to Fell's Church to stay with his aunt and uncle since his parents died and suddenly finds himself having memories of two conflicting realities (one that was real, and one that was made up of fake memories implanted by the Guardians). The reason he retains his real memories is because he is supernatural - not just a dormant werewolf, but also some kind of spellcaster. He sees newspaper articles depicting each reality as well, and determines from them that Elena and her friends know what has happened and why his memories are so conflicting. Hoping that they also know where Tyler is, he begins doing yard work for Aunt Judith, hoping to get closer to Elena so that she will tell him everything. In an effort to speed up this process, he casts a spell that makes the group jealous of everyone else, hoping they will turn against each other and reveal what they know. Stefan figures this out by investigating Caleb's shed. He, Meredith and Matt eventually try to confront him in his house while his aunt and uncle are away, where he reveals his plan. As Matt stands guard on the first floor, Meredith regretfully informs Caleb that Tyler killed Sue Carson and that they truly don't know what happened to him. In Tyler's house, Matt reminisces about how in 7th grade, he, Tyler and some other boys would get together there and play Street Fighter on the PlayStation2. Given that the PlayStation 2 did not exist back when they were in 7th grade, this is probably Matt thinking that they would have played it on that had they actually grown up in the 21st century..